Most Overrated Colleges? Majority Pick

<p>^^^lol i got a full years worth so im graduatin in three years :)</p>

<p>^i have learned a decent amount of accounting this summer. Pretty much memorized the lin items of the balance sheets between assets/liabilities/shareholders equity. Also income statement from sales down to net income and everything inbetween. Also constructing a cashflow statement through using the Balance sheet and income statement. I took quite an interest in finance early in the summer and read up on whatever i coudl get my hands on. I could make a career switch but i still love engineering. Accounting is not that hard by the way, im pretty good with numbers.</p>

<p>ya that is basic accounting and it is simple, just like basic engineering when you first start off. I have taken physics w/ calculus and it was a breeze…</p>

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<p>It really depends on the major. Business is a broad field that is more of an experience than a study. You can probably learn some basic accounting, MIS, and finance by reading books (I have done it myself). However, I believe it is much harder to do it with marketing, higher level economics (tried this myself, actually), business law, and actuarial science. Those either require extensive application, theory, or memorization.</p>

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<p>It was lower at one point, but for the class of 2013, their acceptance rate was [url=<a href=“http://www.nyunews.com/news/university/admission-rate-up-more-than-4-percent-1.1639571]28%[/url”>http://www.nyunews.com/news/university/admission-rate-up-more-than-4-percent-1.1639571]28%[/url</a>].</p>

<p>I will have to give you that one - I admit Tufts’ student body is better than NYU’s. Also, I was thinking about this and in all honesty, NYU’s acceptance rate of 28% is misleading. It should be like in the mid to high 30’s. The amount of applications NYU gets is ridiculous and NYU after all is regarded as the “#1 dream school,” so I def would not be surprised if many of those applicants are delusional and stand no chance at all. I think I stated it earlier - NYU is a brand. They do an incredible job with marketing/PR and location does not hurt either. Plus NYU seems “reachable” to most people unlike the ivies, which accounts for the tons of applications. </p>

<p>But the point I was trying to make earlier, I think NYU definitely has more programs that are higher ranked and regarded such as business, math/econ programs, acting school, philosophy, etc. I may be wrong.</p>

<p>Superstar, your point about basic accounting is so stupid that you once again are forcing me to insult you. You just do not know how to make logical analogies and arguments, do you? I took AP Calculus (although just AB, not BC) in high school and breezed through with a 4 with minimal studying - what’s your point? I also took Physics (w/ Calc) as a science requirement in college, which was also not too bad with some studying. Just like you can handle basic business classes/liberal arts classes, above average students like us can also handle basic science and calculus classes with a little bit of studying. We are not stupid - just not interested in hard core math/science subjects. </p>

<p>I also had to take 5 classes a semester (mostly liberal arts first two years) and I would bet Fordham’s curriculum mirrors that of BC’s so Vinni I know where you are coming from. Superstar, try taking three English, two phil, two theology, two history, two social sciences, two natural science, one math, one fine arts, languages up to exit level, 1 Pluralism, 1 Globalism, 1 Values as just a liberal arts core requirement. On top of that, add classes for your major (believe it or not, our schools also have available majors in math/sciences although that is not our niche or source of pride). There is a reason why BC is ranked in the 30’s and Fordham ranked 61 v/s WPI being ranked in the 70’s. Although you guys have other majors, it is not good and at the end of the day still a one dimensional school, which probably explains why your curriculum needs to be stuffed with so many hard core tech classes. I bet the few required liberal arts classes are a joke. Schools like Tech, Mich, MIT, UC Berkeley, Cal Tech, Carnegie Mellon are very well regarded technical schools but on top of that, they are also very well rounded and good in other feels. That is what makes them such highly ranked schools. Thus, I find it hard to believe that WPI has the most demanding curriculum in the U.S. If it in fact does and either you guys or your peers are doing well in it, you guys should have been at MIT.</p>

<p>You guys also have 4 terms. We have semesters. Obviously, you can take more classes. Many of those liberal arts courses have to be very rudimentary given the amount of time (how many classes a week do you guys take and how long are they?). Also, I would not mind a two month term three classes at a time. These terms are what - two months each (like 20 days of real classes)? It is like a compact summer session, you can remember everything. Plus you are being judged amongst WPI students, so everyone has to go through it. So if it is really as bad as you claim, students fail all the time, and the curve must help out. It is probably not as bad as you guys are making it out to be - I am sure it is very doable and most students there are capable of doing it.</p>

<p>Starburyknicks2004-2005, you are a little late to the party and the debate is over. I will chime in on this one though. You can say that our school is ranked 71 but for the majority of WPI’s existence we have been ranked over Fordham and you can check the history of USNEWS rank. You can’t just say that our school doesn’t offer good liberal arts classes because we are ranked low? are you that naive? Statistically WPI students are better than Fordham.</p>

<p>WPI:
SAT Range (middle 50%) (CR+MA) 1210-1420 SAT
ACT Range (middle 50%) 27-32 composite score
GPA: 3.8</p>

<p>Fordham:
SAT Range (middle 50%) (CR+MA) 1200-1350 SAT
ACT Range (middle 50%) 26-30 composite score
GPA 3.7</p>

<p>*so since you have a strong conviction for Vinny’s theory i guess its safe to say that WPI students are more than qualified to not only get into Fordham but also handle the coursework because we are statistically more well prepared than Fordham students.</p>

<p>By the way this quote by you below:
I bet the few required liberal arts classes are a joke. Schools like Tech, Mich, MIT, UC Berkeley, Cal Tech, Carnegie Mellon are very well regarded technical schools but on top of that, they are also very well rounded and good in other feels. That is what makes them such highly ranked schools. Thus, I find it hard to believe that WPI has the most demanding curriculum in the U.S. If it in fact does and either you guys or your peers are doing well in it, you guys should have been at MIT. </p>

<p>-not well reasoned or can even be considered a rational thought.</p>

<p>**** guys. Bc vs wpi is the most ■■■■■■■■ thing to debate.</p>

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<p>There are several explanations to why WPI is ranked so low these couple of years (high acceptance rate (although being self-selective does help), comparatively low prestige in the MA area, weak offerings in other majors, engineering overshadowed by some stronger schools, etc.). I do agree that it should be a bit higher because its strength in engineering is a bit undermined by USNWR. One problem I have with it (like I mentioned earlier), and it’s my only one, is that it does not have an actual core curriculum, rather a set of five courses in humanities plus one project. Now, the way I see it, with the fast pace of the curriculum, you won’t actually learn as much from the humanities as you do in a more controlled pace (not AP-level controlled because that was just slow and a waste of time). In the hardest of curricula, I fail to see how a 7-week course on English Literature, for example, would allow you to read more than three/four books, a few excerpts, and write one or two analysis papers. Any more reading would not be efficient and would do more harm than good. A longer humanities course would allow more time to develop the humanities skills (time is more required to develop an understanding and appreciation for the humanities than mathematics, where if you learn one thing, you keep building it up to a higher level). Therefore, I believe five courses, the equivalent of two-and-a-half semesters’ worth of humanities courses, is not really enough time to do the humanities justice (and I’m saying this as a math-centric person who hates history to death). Compared to Caltech, which requires twelve terms of humanities, WPI noticeably lacks in the humanities department. If WPI could change its system to accommodate for a more interdisciplinary system, making it more appealing to the general public AND become more recognized in the sea of New England privates, then it may be able to recover back some grounds in the USNWR. I hope my argument is well-reasoned enough for your liking.</p>

<p>superstar: Hands down, Fordham is a more well-rounded and prestigious school than WPI. Please do not even mention liberal arts - WPI is a hard core tech school that does not care about anything else and your spelling/grammar are also good indicators. WPI may have been higher ranked than Fordham in the past, but the truth of the matter is Fordham is very quickly rising to prominence and has risen from 84 to 61 in the past 5 years. I promise you that this is not the end of it and you’ll be hearing a lot more about this school in the future so get used to it. 5 years ago, the avg SAT was around 1150 and the acceptance rate was over 50%. It is now at 42% with SAT being 1200-1350. </p>

<p>If you want to compare WPI’s stats to Fordham’s, the bottom 25% is the same and top 25% differs only by 60 points. On top of that, 200+ point spread between the bottom and top 25% with the acceptance rate being close to 70% is nothing to be proud of. Also, I am sure the math scores bloat the overall SAT score, reaffirming my earlier point on the one dimensionality of the school. Also, I was wondering what % of the student body at WPI is from MA? At Fordham, 45% are from NY, and that number is going down with each passing year with huge influx of students from the west coast and outside the U.S. in the recent years. Wait until they pump even more money into marketing (they have a lot of money with endowment increasing from $300 to $550 million in the past 5 years) and their goal is to reach $1 billion by 2014.</p>

<p>Oh I just wanted to add that Fordham recently spent $100 million on the main campus at Bronx for new upcoming projects, so they’ll have a new student center, upper class residence hall, and dining facility. Another $75 million is being spent on building a new law (ranked #30) school in the Manhattan campus. This will all be done in the next 4-5 years. Additionally, $1.3 billion will be spent over the next 15 years to reshape the Manhattan campus. If you want to talk money, what is WPI doing?</p>

<p>Vinnyli, again you can state your points but at the end of the day i think the admissions office and board of directors know what they are doing atleast far more than you or I. You can sit there and tell me how you think we can improve all day but i don’t care. It is true though the 7 week terms we have to grasp and absorb a lot more material but we are also taking only 3 classes for the term. The acceptance rate has gone up to attract other students outside of engineering. WPI is definitely pouring more money into its art&Scinece/business program. I’m pretty much done explaining the school to you. Ask your friends. Maybe ill bump into you at BC one of these days if your name is vinnyli. I’m very close with the KSA and some students from CSOM i know a lot of the asian students typically go to their partys. </p>

<p>Starbury- You truly constructed a sound cogent pile of maneur. I would bust out the average salary and tell you that WPI is a better return on investment but i wont. WPI does lack in prestige but do i care? Sure my sister went to MIT and i might be the underachiever of my family but a WPI degree definiely gets respect in the New England area. I’m not even going to respond to your other points. By the way i wish he never came to the celtics.</p>

<p>It’s alright superstar, I understand that you are very bitter about your school being very hard and not having anything to show for it and you are using this thread to vent. Average salary has nothing to do with the school or its education but I am happy since you brought it up, 92% of the students from the business school (class of 08) out of the 60% of the students that responded to the survey, myself included had an offer with the median starting salary being $55,000 (check businessweek). I’d say about 3/4 of the graduating class (school of business) has an offer and about 10-15% go on to grad school. Also, I wouldn’t be surprised if tech jobs pay more but that is besides the point, that is just the nature of the work. I like how you call facts pile of maneur and when after I have ripped you and your school apart with facts, you do not want to respond to any of my points. Way to go.
But at the end of day, I admit we are all biased about our schools and we are in the best position to judge the school since we know the most about it. So yes, I will state that I am in no position to say anything about WPI as I am sure it is a fine school with very hard academics. My apologies for any gross generalization that I have had made about WPI, as I do not much about the school. </p>

<p>Yea I wish he had not to come to the Knicks either…I was very hopeful and excited 5 years during the 2004-2005 season, and never got a chance to change my screen name.</p>

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<p>Now, I’m just making arguments based on my personal experience, what I personally know about the school, and what my friends tell me about it. The points I made were not exactly baseless, but you may disagree. At the end of the day though, can we agree that BC is a solid liberal arts institution that deserves its recognition as one of the top schools in Massachusetts, and that WPI is a good technical institute that has the potential to broaden into a strong national university? Like Obama says, “Yes we can!”</p>

<p>Oh, you will probably know who I am when you find me (just don’t expect me to be Chinese). I will be the weird (not exactly nerdy, just weird) Asian dude with hidden stashes of hentai (yes, I’m a perv going to a Catholic school XD) and CD’s of Ayu and Hikki. Just don’t expect to find me so easily, because I don’t like to go to parties that much.</p>

<p>PS My name is not Vinny Li</p>

<p>[2008-2009</a> - WPI](<a href=“http://www.wpi.edu/news/20089/forbesnews.html]2008-2009”>http://www.wpi.edu/news/20089/forbesnews.html)</p>

<p>…?</p>

<p>-Eric</p>